Help

No account yet?
Registering is free, easy, and private.
Discuss in the forum, contribute to the Encyclopedia, build your own MyAnime lists, and more.

Mononoke Day is At Hand!

by Marc Hairston (Team Ghiblink), Oct 25th 1999

(reprinted with permission)

Okay folks, this is it. One of those pivotal moments in history.

This Friday is when "Princess Mononoke" premieres on this side of the
Pacific (in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and Toronto)

Whether it does well or not at the box office almost doesn't matter.
What matters now is that the Miyazaki magic has hit the mainstream
consciousness in America, and anime will never again be seen the same
way around here.

For years we have had to explain ourselves to our friends and family.
We had to deal with the looks we get when we tell someone that we
like Japanese animation. "You mean....stuff like 'Speed Racer'?" they
say. (At least that's what they say if we're lucky; if we're unlucky they
think we're watching cartoon porn.) In any case, it didn't matter
how much we tried to tell them about these shows with plot and style and
thought in them. It didn't matter when we told them there was this
animator in Japan named Miyazaki who was almost a god. They just looked
at us and thought we were weird.

And they thought that because they didn't know any better. Because the
only cartoons they'd ever seen were on Saturday morning tv or else Disney
and the also-ran Disney wannabees movies. Anime just never showed up
on their radar.

But no more. When "Newsweek" and "US News and World Reports" (and
hopefully "Time", too) run feature articles about Mononoke, when every
major newspaper is running articles about the film (the New York Times has
run three already and the film isn't even out), when "Entertainment
Tonight" covers its industry premiere, when Roger Ebert runs interviews
with Miyazaki himself on "At The Movies", then you know that mainstream
America has finally noticed anime.

And now it's finally your chance to show them. To show all of your
friends and family what this stuff you've been watching for years is
really like. To show them something that's "okay" for them to watch
(even though it's Japanese animation) because it's put out by a major
studio they've heard of and endorsed by national critics (like Ebert)
they already know. To show them something that, even if they don't
understand all of it, will change them. No one who has seen only
Disney and Saturday morning cartoons will ever be able to think of
animation the same way after they walk out of the theater. With some
luck they'll even turn to you (without that weird look) and say "So
that's why you've been watching this stuff."

Anime fandom grew because we shared. Fansubs, scripts, recommendations,
12th generation copies of shows taped off the air in Japan. Why did
we do this? Because the natural instinctive response of every human being
when they find something good, be it a movie, a book, a song, is to
grab someone else and say "hey, this is great, ya gotta see this...."

And so anime fandom has grown until we've reached this point. And now
this Friday, like it or not, we're going mainstream. It's time for us
to share anime with the rest of folks here.

Despite a vocal few who want to keep anime all to themselves, it's too
late for anime to stay a cult thing anymore. There are too many six year
olds out there trading "Pokemon" cards. Too many schoolkids running home
to watch "Sailor Moon" and "Dragonball Z" every afternoon. Too many movie
critics scanning their thesauruses looking for superlatives to shower on
"Mononoke".

Going mainstream is a cause for celebration, folks! Going mainstream
means never having to explain yourself again. After all, nobody has to
explain themselves when they say they're a Star Wars fan. After this
Friday, when you tell someone you're a fan of Japanese animation, they'll
be more likely to say "Oh, you mean like 'Mononoke'?"

So what can we fans do help this bring about this great leap forward?

Simple.

Go see the movie.

Take your friends and family with you. Take as many people with you as
you can with you. If necessary, buy their tickets (or at least offer to
pay them back if they don't like the movie). Go back to see it the next
day if you can. If you're within a couple of hours driving distance of
one of the cities it's opening in this weekend or next, then don't wait
for it to come to your town, drive over to see it.

I know this has been said over and over, but we can't emphasize it enough:
WHETHER "PRINCESS MONONOKE" GETS A WIDER RELEASE DEPENDS ENTIRELY ON
HOW WELL IT DOES THE FIRST TWO WEEKENDS IT PLAYS IN LIMITED RELEASE.
It doesn't matter that it will only be playing at only one or two
theaters in most markets, what Miramax will be looking at is *not*
the total box office, but the how full the each theater is. Every
warm body in every theater seat at every showing brings us that much
closer to a full scale nationwide release.

Over at Nausicaa.Net we've already gotten one report from one city
where the theater manager said he wasn't going to bother selling advanced
tickets because they'd never sold out the theater for any foreign
film. I won't tell you which city and theater that was, just assume it's
the one nearest you. Go prove him wrong.

And after you've seen the movie, go to the Miramax website
(www.miramax.com) and send them email telling them how much you enjoyed
seeing the film and how you're going to tell all your friends to go see it
too. If you live in an area that isn't currently scheduled to get
"Mononoke", email them now and tell them where you are and how much
you'd like to see "Mononoke" playing at a local theater. They'll listen.

So don't worry about whatever nitpicks you may still have about the
movie. After years of trying we've finally gotten Hollywood to shell
out millions for a quality dub with name actors that's playing in real
movie theaters! Go see it and take your friends. It will change them, and
it may change you. And you'll be able to look back years from now at
these few weeks and know you were there when history was made. When the
light of Miyazaki's magic came to American theaters.

Anime. It's not just for otaku anymore. Spread the word.

Editor's note: One other thing... We've been hearing reports about otaku that WON'T go see Mononoke in the theater because it's dubbed.

If you're one of those people, GET OVER IT! Whether you like dubs or not, go see this one -- it's one of the best. Besides, Miyazaki said (with myself in the audience) that the dub exceeded his expectations. "I made Mononoke to be seen in the theater," he added. If you are willing to actually go against the words of the creator of the holy grail of anime just because you are too picky about how you absolutely HAVE to have your anime, your sanity truly comes into question.

Don't make me strap you to a chair and tape your eyelids open and force you to watch Midnight Panther. I'll do it, too. :P

They're still showing 35mm prints of Ghibli classics like Princess Mononoke in some revival theaters - but what's so special about 35mm? Justin has some thoughts.― David asked: Hi! I've noticed that several art house theaters in the NY metro area have started showing 35mm version of Ghibli classics like Mononoke and Nausicaa. is there any real benefit to seeing these over the "regular versions" mor...

From She and Her Cat to Your Name., Anne Lauenroth ranks all of Makoto Shinkai's projects from top to bottom. What are your favorite creations by this distinctive director?― Why do we wake up crying from a dream we've already begun to forget? Why does the feeling of loss linger after the memory of that dream has faded to a vague feeling of something that should be there but isn't? How can we long f...

Corpse Party's conclusion diverges more from the game than ever before, but disappoints as a horror story. Rebecca Silverman explains what went wrong.― These volumes, according to creators Toshimi Shinomiya and Makoto Kedouin, are where the manga adaptation of Corpse Party: Blood Covered really diverges from its game original. By this point the cast is most cut back down to its first game characters...

Recovery of an MMO Junkie has been a wild ride, but it's finally time for Moriko and Sakurai to start a new chapter together. We speculate on the next horizon for this nerdy couple.― Recovery of an MMO Junkie has been a wild ride, but it's finally time for Moriko and Sakurai to start a new chapter together. This week in anime, Michelle and Steve speculate what lies on the horizon for this nerdy coup...

Magical girls get a military makeover in this dark take on the genre. Rebecca Silverman has the details.― What do you think has been lacking from dark magical girl reboots? If you said “big ass guns and crippling PTSD,” then Magical Girl Special Ops Asuka might be the series for you! While the concept of the dark magical girl story is hardly new – those who remember the final moments of the last Nur...

The C3 Anime Festival Asia Singapore holds the crown as the biggest anime festival in Asia outside of Japan. The con celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, and was attended by over 96,000 people. This year's events featured no major changes from the previous ones, but why fix what isn't broken? Notably, 2017's guest lineup included the main staff of Violet Evergarden, which was part of the con...

We frequently hear about how in Western animation, performances are often taped before animation really starts - but the opposite is apparently true in Japan. Justin gets into it.― James asked: Some time ago, you stated that one of the major differences between western animation and Japanese animation is that, in western animation, all dialogue is recorded first, and then the animation is done to m...

Paul gets into the recent film remake of this gearhead classic, along with all this week's new anime releases!― I really liked the ending of Recovery of an MMO Junkie this week, but now I'm starting to realize that the early finale means I'll have to get through the rest of the season without it. You know a series is good when the thought of not having new episodes to watch makes you feel a little ...

One of the most beloved shojo anime of all time comes to Blu-ray in this "sweet sixteen" special edition set! Rebecca Silverman looks back on how this heartwarming classic has held up sixteen years later.― Back when it was first released, Fruits Basket, based on the manga of the same name by Natsuki Takaya, was a sensation. Combining elements of fantasy, slice-of-life, and reverse harem romance come...

Mike devours a few episodes of the genre-smashing French action cartoon Lastman and wonders - is this anime?― Earlier this year I was at the Crunchyroll Expo, where I hosted a bunch of discussion panels and presented a couple of my own. The homogenous look and omnipresent Crunchyroll branding took some getting used to, but it was ultimately an energetic and well-run show, a deft mix of the stuff I l...

My Monster Secret’s sixth volume maintains its madcap romcom appeal in spite of some predictably glacial pacing. Nick Creamer has the details.― At last, it's time for action. As My Monster Secret's sixth volume opens, our hero Asahi reiterates his determination to actually confess to his vampiric classmate Shiragami. Having been spurred into action by the courage of his childhood friend Mikan, he's ...